Crater takes second at Oregon Classic

REDMOND — An impressive run at the Oregon Wrestling Classic came up just short for fifth-ranked Crater on Saturday at the Deschutes County Fair & Expo Center.

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Posted Jan. 20, 2013 at 12:10 AM
Updated Jan 20, 2013 at 3:10 AM

Posted Jan. 20, 2013 at 12:10 AM
Updated Jan 20, 2013 at 3:10 AM

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REDMOND — An impressive run at the Oregon Wrestling Classic came up just short for fifth-ranked Crater on Saturday at the Deschutes County Fair & Expo Center.

The Comets scored a pair of solid victories against third-ranked Oregon City and top-ranked Roseburg to start their day, but ran out of gas in the finals in a 33-29 loss to second-ranked David Douglas in the Class 6A bracket.

"Anytime you knock off Roseburg, I know they're a little bit wounded and we wrestle them in two weeks and they'll be loaded for bear, but that just gives us confidence that we can beat some of the best teams in the state in dual meets," said Crater head coach Greg Haga. "It lets us know where we're at and lets us know where we need to go."

Senior heavyweight Derrick Turituri was the lone Comet to go undefeated in the six duals this weekend, while Wyatt Haas went 5-1 at 195.

Crater's 40-30 victory over Oregon City put them in a semfinal matchup with the Indians, which the Comets pulled out 36-25 by winning eight of the 14 matches and limiting Roseburg to bonus points in only two of its wins.

Nate Walters picked up a key pin at 132 pounds when he reversed a one-point deficit with an arm bar and pinned Payton Mesa. Luke Mackey locked up the dual with Roseburg with a pin of Tyler Spence at 106, with major decisions earned by Morgan Walters (126) over Tommy Dill and Dillon Ulrey (138) over David Harker. Chase Mackey also topped Isaac Hartwick by fall at 160.

"Against David Douglas we were behind the eight-ball the whole way," said Haga. "We were down 33-15 at one time and we came back and lost 33-29 so that's a pretty good finish there."

Nate Walters turned Jeremiah Baker at 132 with a cradle to highlight the effort in the final, while Chase Mackey bumped up to 170 and pinned Zeb Brown and Walter Kurz scored a solid win at 113 over Lionel Cruz. At 106, Luke Mackey went into overtime before coming up short in a match that could have gone either way and potentially closed the gap to a one-point difference.

EAGLE POINT INVITATIONAL — At Eagle Point, host Eagle Point crowned four champions and had eight wrestlers advance to the finals to claim the title in the 14-team event at Eagle Point High.

ALL-SKYLINE MEET — At Ashland, the Phoenix boys team won the all-Skyline Conference meet for the 12th straight year while the Henley girls used their depth to edge the Pirates in action at the SOU pool.

Phoenix scored 94 points to edge Henley for the boys title, with Aaron Heard winning the 200 freestyle (2:11.33) and the 500 free (6:12.79) for the Pirates and swimming a leg on the winning 200 freestyle relay squad.

The Hornet girls scored 130 points to pull away from Phoenix, which got individual wins from Alyse Darnall in the 200 individual medley (2:19.80) and 100 butterfly (1:04.15), Kylee Burks in the 50 free (27.18) and Olivia Sanchez in the 500 free (5:55.90).